The faithful subject...

Phoebe's latest strong interest is in taking photos....and Luke is one of her favourite subjects...

Happy Veggie Valentine's Day...

Puppy Love

I'm not sure what you'd judge to be the 'cutest' about this pic...the cuddles, those big puppy eyes on the girl, the snuggling of the puppy's coat by Phoebe's friend, Kade, or the apparent implicit trust deep within those big doggy puppy eyes...aw!
SO - here we introduce...WINSTON, a lovely little 8 week old Pomeranian puppy...+ our neighbour, Peter's, latest addition and new companion for his other dog, Ivan.

pure appley fun!

one day last week, I was a little pre-occupied, working away steadily with my seedlings or seed sowing or something...and a little voice asked "Mum, what can I do apple-bobbing in?" Quite a surprise and yet, not. We have apples dropping in luscious red and green striped blobs all over the ground under our old Cox's Orange Pippin at the moment...and I now remember we'd thought about this game for playing at Phoebe's party...and not followed through...
So, as resourceful as Phoebe is, it wasn't long before she'd filled this large container with water, watering can by watering can-full, found said apples and begun anticipating and dipping and dripping and giggling and wiping and beginning all over again...for a very long time, it seemed...delicious, pure appley fun. Of course, the apples in a game of apple bobbing never get cornered with a nice, wide, round barrel for playing with...
All the same, it was her fun, generated by her and she thoroughly enjoyed herself and even built a little more confidence with getting her face wet...+ some progress in that department is wonderful!

the kitchen table

...where we find ourselves writing, reading, creating, (homeschooling), eating, communing and generally living the most...the kitchen table... built lovingly by Aaron from reclaimed timbers, bolted solidly together - he would call it "rough as guts" - I call it a little bit of "French Country Chic". Anyway you look at it, it sits very happily amid the cosiness of our tiny kitchen in our "worker's cottage" in the country.
The center of our home, the centre of our lives, much of the time.

Creating with My Cousins

what a fun and creative week we've had with two of Phoebe's cousins, Ben and Briana coming to stay...and the weather being rather inclement. Oh, we had plans!...big plans... to make a huge teepee playhouse outside from all the kindling wood needing to be gathered (two birds with one stone - and fun, too, I imagined!), to go for bush walks, gathering forked branches to then weave with, to paint our new fence with rainbow stripes, to flop in the river when we got too hot and needing refreshment...but Mother Nature had her own plans for us...she wanted to rain and rain and rain and then rain some more, just when we all thought we'd begin to dry out a bit....
...so before mealtimes whilst the cook was busy concocting delectable meals the children spent their waiting time drawing on a large sheet of plain newsprint, a whole roll of which cost the princely sum of $2.00 from the office of the Gisborne Herald. This idea came from the ever-resourceful Amanda Blake Soule and her book "The Creative Family".As it became clear we were in for an extended rainy time we came upon another idea "Calvin's Papier-mache bowls" from Amanda, this time from her second book: "Handmade Home"... and made glue on the stove-top...
...cut up loads of old newspapers and pasted and moulded to our heart's content, outside, under the cover of our (very well used) lean-to, off our downstairs living area. We blended Amanda's ideas by cutting up one of the mealtime art sessions into pieces for the final layer of the papier mache...all ending up with a unique bowl [albeit square bowls!], including pieces of each other's art - something to remember the fun week together in the school holidays...
And, here they are drying in one of the rare moments of sunshine this past week.

Stunning Crisp Cox's Orange Pippin Apples

We have this gnarled, old apple tree, which I'd have to admit was a large selling point when we purchased our property. We think it is a beautiful old variety, the Cox's Orange Pippin. Very tart and very crisp when it is ripe and striped with red over the green. I've always loved the sensation of munching into the first first apple of the new season.
There's something so magical about this great providing tree, standing solidly on the land, changing with the seasons, getting even more beautiful with age, giving shade in Summer and many, many happy hours for Phoebe.
Aaron found an old ladder and has lashed it (gently, yet firmly!) to the Apple's trunk and Phoebe climbs up and hangs out up there in her kid-sized nook. The foot of our large apple is where we chose to site her sand and mud play area - much industry goes on underneath her shady boughs.
And the apples - so many - we've been almost teased by the apple tree this year - so many undersized/immature windfalls falling over the past several weeks - from a bumper crop. It could look like waste, there are so many - they carpet the ground in places - yet we collect them and crush them up for the girls in the Permaculture Chook Dome and send them off in buckets for the neighbouring pigs to feast on. And we've waited and waited patiently for our great old apple tree's apples to finally be ready...
Phoebe's beam says it all - first apples to eat! YUM!